UFO'S of UAP'S, ASTRONOMIE, RUIMTEVAART, ARCHEOLOGIE, OUDHEIDKUNDE, SF-SNUFJES EN ANDERE ESOTERISCHE WETENSCHAPPEN

On December 16, the New York Times published two stories that read almost like science fiction. For at least five years, the Defense Department housed a $22-million, clandestine program to investigate UFOs. Military pilots had sent in reports of objects they observed that moved in unfamiliar ways; the mission of the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, as it was called, was to investigate those claims to see if there was truly something otherworldly behind those sightings.

It’s unclear just how many reports pilots had filed to the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, but people who have come forward about the program have made it clear that there would have been a lot more reports filed if it hadn’t been for one thing: stigma. “The sightings were not often reported up the military’s chain of command, [former senator Harry Reid] said, because service members were afraid they would be laughed at or stigmatized,” one Times piece reads.

American culture is steeped in depictions of what would happen if sophisticated aliens visited Earth, from E.T. to Arrival to Independence Day. Some are more hackneyed than others; some are downright terrifying. But outside the clear genres of fiction, most conversations about UFOs happen online, and with varying degrees of vehemence.

Let’s face it — believing in the paranormal has become shorthand for crazy.

“60 years of folklorization and Hollywood production have, in the minds of the general public, definitely trivialized the subject. It has become a ‘standard’ consumer product,” Jean-Christophe Doré, the technical manager for UFO-SCIENCE, the French association that aims to scientifically evaluate aspects of UFO phenomena, tells Futurism.

But to some, that association might be changing. Luis Elizondo, the military official formerly in charge of the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, told The New York Times’ Daily podcast:

I think we’re entering an era of actual evidence. We’ve reached a moment of critical mass of credible witnesses, and these are witnesses that are in charge of multi-million-dollar weapon platforms with, in some cases, the highest level of security clearances and in some cases they’re trained observers. When these individuals are trying to report something, ‘Hey I saw this when I was flying,’ that can be turned around and people say ‘hey look if you’re crazy, there goes your flight status.’ Or all of a sudden commander so-and-so in charge of this very elite fighter wing will no longer be taken seriously. In fact, people are going to start to judge whether or not maybe our friend here might not be a little crazy, or maybe some loose screws. That’s always a threat to these people’s career. And let’s face it, these people have to pay their taxes, they have to pay their mortgages, they have families, they’re putting their kids through school. And frankly, they’re just really good patriots and they want to do the right thing. And that stigma is pretty powerful. It stops a lot of people from reporting something maybe they would normally report.

Government officials are no longer hiding their belief that extraterrestrials might be out there. Could this be a turning point for once-fringe communities and open doors for those looking to bring scientific rigor to the quest to understand UFOs?

Logical Fallacy

Most phenomena thought to be the doings of extraterrestrials are eventually explained. Take Project Blue Book, for example, the U.S. government’s program to investigate unidentified flying objects that ran from 1947 until 1969. Of the more than 12,000 reported sightings, investigators found out the real (not paranormal) story for all but 700 or so. That’s a pretty good percentage, says Joe Nickell, senior research fellow at the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry and paranormal investigator — about as much as you’d expect from any other scientific discipline. “A lot of these cases are never going to be solved because I don’t know what you think you saw 10 years ago. They’re not investigatable,” Nickell tells Futurism.

In other disciplines, a certain amount of uncertainty will mean that more studies are needed to definitely prove a link. But that’s not what happens with UFOs. “We spend all these years, virtually our entire lives (it’s what I’m doing with mine), and we’re solving most cases. We’re down to, say, 5 percent [that we can’t explain], and we’re arguing over the 5 percent,” Nickell says. You give someone a level-headed, thorough, earthly explanation for a particular report, and they’ll just respond, “But what about this other one?” This is, as Nickell points out, an argument from ignorance — in essence, X must be true because you can’t prove that X is false. “Why don’t we assume that, if we can explain 95 percent, that if we knew the answer, it would fall into the same category as the others?” Nickell says.

Belief in extraterrestrials is fueled by a lack of evidence, not its presence. For some people, that’s enough.

The Psychology Of Believers

More than half of Americans believe that aliens exist, according to a 2015 poll. Scientists have evaluated what distinguishes believers and non-believers and didn’t find much, the Conversation notes. But people that believe they had an abduction experience, perhaps a more extreme form of belief, are more likely to have fantasy-prone personalities, have experienced childhood trauma, or be prone to hypnosisthat can make them suggestible to false memories, studies have shown. That doesn’t mean they’re lying about their experiences — they often genuinely believe they happened — but those experiences were often not quite what the individuals thought they were.

What distinguishes people who believe in Big Foot, for example, from those who believe in UFOs? It’s the suspicion of government involvement, Nickell says. More people believe in conspiracies than ever; if someone were looking to find a black-ops government program and a conspiracy to keep it secret, they’d find the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program.

“I think, for most people who believe in these UFO claims, it’s tied up with conspiracy. If you want to believe that UFOs are visiting the planet, there kind of has to be a cover up,” Rob Brotherton, a psychology professor at Barnard College and the author of Suspicious Minds: Why We Believe Conspiracy Theories, tells Futurism. And because they’re built on secrecy, it’s really hard to disprove a conspiracy theory, Brotherton points out.

Conspiracy theories about UFOs, in particular, are pretty widespread, and they have a psychological appeal that goes against the stereotype of weirdos wearing tinfoil hats. Conspiracy theories rely on the same pattern-recognition techniques we use in our daily lives, and in science as well. “Conspiracy theories make for great stories, they’re tantalizing, mysteries not yet fully solved. Your brain is like, ‘What’s up with that?’ it’s not satisfied until it knows if these things are related.”

Most of the time, people who believe in them are psychologically normal. But the belief that the government or aliens are specifically pursuing you as an individual — a me and not an us focus —might indicate a psychiatric disorder like schizophrenia, though that would be one of a number of symptoms.

“It’s not impossible [that extraterrestrials are visiting Earth],” Brotherton says. “Maybe they’re technologically advanced, maybe they are able to make it here. That’s not beyond the realms of possibility; it doesn’t defy the laws of physics necessarily. It’s worth keeping an eye out for this stuff.”

Worthy of Pursuit

Science hinges on discovery and the pursuit to understand the unknown. It’s not out of the realm of possibility, then, that some of these UFO reports are worthy of rigorous investigation. They could reveal something new about atmospheric phenomena, or physics, or, yes, possibly even extraterrestrials.

It’s not easy to separate the mysterious sightings, the ones that could yield something scientifically interesting, from the sightings that can quickly be resolved. “These are, almost by definition, unusual things to start with, something in the sky that we don’t know what it is. We don’t see them every night. So we have no idea [at the beginning of an investigation] if they’re going to be productive or not,” Nickell says.

Despite these difficulties, some investigators are already bringing the rigor of science to examine UFO reports. Some, like Nickell, are hunting down witnesses and testing theories; others, like Chase Kloetzke, the deputy director of investigations at MUFON, the world’s oldest and largest UFO investigation group, are retrieving physical evidence and testing alloys of unknown metals with cutting-edge microscopes and trained metallurgists. A number of organizations receive private funding, which sometimes means they have fewer resources than they would if they received governments grants. And the work is often thankless. “I’m trying, in the name of science, to do what most scientists don’t have time to do, what they consider frivolous nonsense,” Nickell says. “UFOs have been looked into now by the tens of thousands, even by official government studies. And what do we have to show? Not a lot. How many more will we have to look into? I would say we will never be done. I’m in it for the long haul.”

To do these sorts of investigations, it’s irrelevant whether or not they believe that extraterrestrials have really visited Earth. All people need is a rigorous scientific mind, perseverance to investigate doggedly, and a sensitive nose for falsehoods.

Now that information about the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program has spilled out, it buoys those who hope that the government might have evidence that could more clearly indicate the presence of extraterrestrials, something that stands up to the rigor of scientific evaluation. “Do we have a smoking gun? We do, it’s just locked up,” Kloetzke, of MUFON, says referring to the “physical material [the government] has been holding and analyzing.” “We’re pushing down the doors. We’re trying to breach this information,” she says.

Still, opinions vary on how much evidence is enough to prove the existence of extraterrestrials. “I think most people are going to need a craft to land in Central Park [to believe UFOs are real],” Kloetzke says.

“There is absolutely no solid evidence that meets any standards of scientific ‘proof’ that UFOs exist. That’s why people can’t take it seriously,” Sara Seager, an astrophysicist at MIT who studies exoplanets and was quoted in the New York Timesarticle, tells Futurism. To some, in the end, evidence doesn’t matter. “I am not a UFO supporter in any way. It’s just like why do people believe in God? There’s no way to scientifically prove the existence of any God or gods. People just want to believe.”

Concealed within the desolate, rocky landscape of the Makran coastline of Southern Balochistan, Pakistan, is an architectural gem that has gone unnoticed and unexplored for centuries. The ‘Balochistan Sphinx’, as it is popularly called, came into the public eye only after the Makran Coastal Highway opened in 2004, linking Karachi with the port town of Gwadar on the Makran coast.¹ A four-hour, 240-kilometer-long drive through meandering mountain passes and arid valleys from Karachi brings travellers to Hingol National Park, where the Balochistan Sphinx is located.

It is a four-hour drive from Karachi to the Hingol National Park, along the Makran Coastal Highway. The Balochistan Sphinx is located inside Hingol National Park.

The Makran Coastal Highway.

Source: www.tresbohemes.com

The Balochistan Sphinx

The Balochistan Sphinx is routinely passed off by journalists as a natural formation, although no archaeological survey appears to have been conducted on the site.² If we explore the features of the structure, as well as its surrounding complex, it becomes difficult to accept the oft-repeated premise that it has been shaped by natural forces. Rather, the site looks like a gigantic, rock-cut, architectural complex.

A cursory glance at the impressive sculpture shows the Sphinx to have a well-defined jawline, and clearly discernible facial features such as eyes, nose, and mouth, which are placed in seemingly perfect proportion to each other.

(a) The Balochistan Sphinx of Hingol National Park, ©Bilal Mirza CC BY 2.0.

(b) Face of the Great Sphinx of Giza, ©Hamerani CC BY-SA 4.0. Striking similarities can be drawn between its face, and that of (a), the Balochistan Sphinx.

The Sphinx appears to be decked up in a head-dress that closely resembles the Nemes head-dress of the Egyptian pharaoh. The Nemes headdress is a striped head-cloth that covers the crown and back of the head. It has two large, conspicuous, flaps which hang down behind the ears and in front of the shoulders. The ear-flaps can be discerned on the Balochistan Sphinx, as well as some stripe marks. The Sphinx has a horizontal groove across its forehead, which corresponds to the pharaonic headband that holds the Nemes headdress in place.

One can easily make out the contours of the reclining forelegs of the Sphinx, which terminate in very well-defined paws. It is difficult to see how nature could have carved out a statue that resembles a well-known mythical animal to such an astonishingly accurate degree.

The Balochistan Sphinx resembles the Egyptian sphinxes in many respects.

The Sphinx-Temple

In close proximity to the Balochistan Sphinx is another important structure. From a distance, it looks like a Hindu Temple (like those of South India), with a Mandapa(entrance hall) and a Vimana (temple spire). The top part of the Vimana appears to be missing. The Sphinx is reclining in front of the temple, acting as protector of the sacred site.

The Balochistan Sphinx reclines in front of a temple-like structure.

Source: www.pakistanpaedia.com

In ancient, sacred architecture, the sphinx performed a protective function, and was generally placed in a pair on either side of entrances to temples, tombs, and sacred monuments. In ancient Egypt, the sphinx had the body of a lion, but its head could be that of a man (Androsphinx), a ram (Criosphinx) or a falcon (Hierocosphinx).³ The Great Sphinx of Giza, for instance, acts as guardian of the Pyramid Complex.

In Greece, the sphinx had the head of a woman, the wings of an eagle, the body of a lioness, and according to some, the tail of a serpent.⁴ The colossal statue of the Sphinx of Naxos stood on a towering ionic column, at the sacred Oracle of Delphi, acting as a protector of the site.

In Indian art and sculpture, the sphinx is known as purusha-mriga (‘man-beast’ in Sanskrit), and its primary position was near the temple gateway, acting as a guardian of the sanctuary.⁵ However, sphinxes were sculpted all over the temple premises including the entrance gates (gopuram), halls (mandapa) and near the central shrine (garba–griha). Raja Deekshithar identified 3 basic forms of the Indian sphinx:

A crouching sphinx with a human face, but with certain lion characteristics like mane and elongated ears

A striding or jumping sphinx with a fully human face

A half-upright or fully-upright sphinx, sometimes with moustaches and long beards, often in an act of worshipping a Shiva-linga.⁶

Sphinxes also feature in Buddhist architecture of Southeast Asia. In Myanmar, they are called Manusiha (from the Sanskrit manu-simha, meaning man-lion). They are depicted in a cat-like crouching posture at the corners of Buddhist stupas. They wear a tapering crown and ornamental ear-flaps, and have feathered wings attached to their front limbs.⁷

So, throughout the ancient world, the sphinx acted as a protector of sacred places. Perhaps not coincidentally, the Sphinx of Balochistan also appears to be guarding the temple-like structure adjacent to it. This suggests that the site was laid out in accordance with the principles of sacred architecture.

A closer look at the Balochistan Sphinx-Temple reveals clear evidence of pillars carved on a boundary wall. The temple entrance is visible behind a large pile-up of sediment or termite mounds. An elevated, sculpted, structure to the left of the entrance could be a subsidiary shrine. Overall, there can be little doubt that this a massive, man-made, rock-cut monument of great antiquity.

The Balochistan Sphinx-Temple shows clear signs of being a man-made, rock-cut temple.

Interestingly, there seems to be two monumental sculptures carved on the façade of the Sphinx-Temple, right above the entrance, on either side.

The carvings are heavily eroded, making their identification difficult; but it looks as if the figure on the left could be Kartikeya (Skanda/Murugan) holding his spear (vel); and the figure on the right, a striding Ganesha. Incidentally, both Kartikeya and Ganesha are sons of Shiva, meaning that the temple complex could have been dedicated to Shiva.

While identification at this stage is speculative, the presence of sculpted figures on the façade gives greater weight to this being a man-made structure.

The façade carvings on the Balochistan Sphinx-Temple could be that of Kartikeya and Ganesha.

The structure of the Sphinx-Temple suggests that it may actually be a Gopuram, i.e. the entrance tower of a temple. Like the Sphinx-Temple, gopurams are generally flat-topped. Gopurams have a row of ornamental kalasams (stone or metal pots) arranged on top. From careful study of the flat-topped Sphinx-Temple, one can discern a number of ‘spikes’ on top, which could be a row of kalasams, covered with sediment or termite mounds.

Gopurams are attached to the boundary wall of a temple, and the Sphinx-Temple appears to be contiguous with the outer boundary. Gopurams also feature giant sculpted figures of dvarapalas, i.e. door guardians; and as we have noted, the Sphinx-Temple appears to have two monumental figures carved on its façade, just above the entrance, which serve as the dvarapalas.

The Balochistan Sphinx-Temple could be a gopuram, i.e. an entrance tower of a temple.

An elevated structure to the left of the Sphinx-Temple could be another gopuram. This implies that there could be four gopurams in the cardinal directions leading to a central courtyard, where the main shrine of the temple complex was built (which cannot be seen in the photograph). This kind of temple architecture is quite common in South Indian Temples.

The Arunachaleshwar Temple in Tamil Nadu, India, has four gopurams i.e. entrance towers, in the cardinal directions. The temple complex houses numerous shrines. ©Adam Jones CC BY-SA 3.0.

The Sphinx-Temple Platform

The elevated platform on which the Sphinx and Temple are situated appears to have been elaborately carved with pillars, niches, and a symmetrical pattern that extends across the entire upper part of the platform. Some of the niches may well be doors that lead to chambers and halls under the Sphinx-Temple. It is believed by many, including mainstream Egyptologists like Mark Lehner, that there could be chambers and passages under the Great Sphinx of Giza as well. It is also interesting to note that the Balochistan Sphinx and the Sphinx-Temple are situated on an elevated platform, just as the Sphinx and the Pyramids of Egypt are built on the Giza plateau overlooking the city of Cairo.

Another conspicuous feature of this site is a series of steps leading to the elevated platform. The steps appear to be evenly spaced, and of uniform height. The entire site gives the impression of a grand, rock-cut, architectural complex, which has been eroded by the elements, and covered by layers of sediment, masking the more intricate details of the sculptures.

The Balochistan Sphinx-Temple Platform can be made out to have been carved with steps, pillars, niches and a symmetrical pattern.

Site Sedimentation

What could have deposited so much sediment on the site? The Makran coast of Balochistan is a seismically active zone, which frequently produces enormous tsunamis that obliterate entire villages. It has been reported that the earthquake of November 28 1945, with its epicentre off the coast of Makran, caused a tsunami with waves reaching as high as 13m in some places.⁸

Additionally, a number of mud volcanoes are strewn along the Makran coastline, some of which are located in the Hingol National Park, near the Hingol river delta.⁹Intense earthquake activity triggers the volcanoes to erupt, spewing staggering amounts of mud, and drowning the surrounding landscape. Sometimes, mud volcano islands appear off the coast of Makran, in the Arabian Sea, which are dissipated by wave action within a year.¹⁰ The combined action of tsunamis, mud volcanoes and termite mounds may, therefore, be responsible for the build-up of sediment on the site.

View of Chandragup I Mud Volcano, Balochistan, from the base. ©Ahsan Mansoor Khan CC BY-SA 4.0.

Crater of a Hangol mud volcano. CC BY-SA 3.0.

Historical Context

An elaborate Indian temple complex on the Makran coast should not come as a surprise, for Makran had always been regarded by the Arab chroniclers as ‘the frontier of al-Hind.¹¹ A-Biruni wrote that, “the coast of al-Hind begins with Tiz, the capital of Makran, and from there extends in a south-eastern direction….”¹² Though the sovereignty of parts of the region alternated between Indian and Persian kings from very early times, it retained “an Indianised identity all along”.¹³ In the decades preceding the Muslim raids, Makran was under the dominion of a dynasty of Hindu kings, who had their capital at Alor in Sind.¹⁴

The term ‘Makran’ is sometimes taken to be a corruption of the Persian Maki-Khoran, meaning ‘fish-eaters’. But it is also thought that the name derives from a Dravidian toponymic ‘Makara’.¹⁵ When the Chinese pilgrim Hiuen Tsang visited Makran in the 7^th century AD, he noted the script that was in use in Makran to be “much the same as that of India,” but the spoken language to have “differed a little from that of India”.¹⁶ Historian Andre Wink writes:

The same chiefdom of Armadil is referred to by Hiuen Tsang as ‘O-tien-p’o-chi-lo’, located at the high road running through Makran. He also describes it as predominantly Buddhist; thinly populated though it was, it had no less than 80 Buddhist convents with about 5000 monks. In effect at eighteen kilometres northwest of Las Bela at Gandakahar, near the ruins of an ancient town are the caves of Gondrani, and as their constructions show these caves were undoubtedly Buddhist. Traveling through the Kij valley further west (then under the government of Persia) Hiuen Tsang saw some 100 Buddhist monasteries and 6000 priests. He also saw several hundred Deva temples in this part of Makran, and in the town of Su-nu li-chi-shi-fa-lo – which is probably Qasrqand- he saw a temple of Maheshvara Deva, richly adorned and sculptured. There is thus very wide extension of Indian cultural forms in Makran in the seventh century, even in the period when it fell under Persian sovereignty. By comparison, in more recent times the last place of Hindu pilgrimage in Makran was Hinglaj, 256 km west of present day Karachi, in Las Bela.¹⁷

Thus, according to the accounts of Hiuen Tsang, the Makran coast was – even in the 7^th century AD – dotted with hundreds of Buddhist monasteries and caves, as well as several hundred Hindu Temples, including a richly sculpted temple of Lord Shiva.

What happened to these caves, temples, and monasteries of the Makran coast? Why have they not been restored and brought into the public eye? Are they suffering the same fate as the Sphinx-Temple Complex? Probably so. Eroded by the elements and covered with sediment, these ancient monuments have either been entirely forgotten or are being passed off as natural formations.

Indeed, close to the Balochistan Sphinx, on top of an elevated platform, are the remnants of what appears to be another ancient Hindu-like temple, complete with the Mandapa, Shikhara (Vimana), pillars and niches.

An ancient Temple of Makran, with Vimana, Mandapa, pillars and niches.

How Old Are These Temples?

The Indus Valley Civilisation extended along the Makran coastline, and its westernmost archaeological site is known as the Sutkagen Dor, near the Iranian border. Some of the temples and rock-cut sculptures of the region, including the Sphinx-Temple Complex, could, therefore, have been built thousands of years ago, during the Indus Period (c. 3000 BCE), or earlier. It is possible that the site was built in phases, and that some of the structures are extremely old, and others comparatively recent. Dating rock-cut monuments is, however, difficult in the absence of inscriptions. If the site contains readable inscriptions that can be interpreted (another tricky proposition, since the Indus script has not yet yielded its secrets), then it may be possible to put a date on some of the monuments. In the absence of inscriptions, scientists will have to rely on datable artefacts/human remains, architectural styles, geological erosion patterns, and other clues, however.

One of the persistent mysteries of the Indian Civilisation is the profusion of exquisite rock-cut temples and monuments that were built from the 3^rd century BCE onwards. How did the skills and techniques for building these sacred places of worship appear without a corresponding period of evolution? The rock-cut monuments of the Makran coastline may provide much-needed continuity between the architectural forms and techniques of the Indus period and the later-day Indian civilisation. It may have been on the mountains of the Makran coast that the Indus artisans honed and perfected their skills, which were later transported to the Indian civilisation.

The Indus Valley Civilisation included sites located along the Makran coast.

Source: http://www.waa.ox.ac.uk

Undoubtedly, there is a virtual treasure trove of archaeological wonders waiting to be discovered on the Makran coast of Balochistan. Unfortunately, these magnificent monuments, whose origins go back to unknown antiquity, continue to languish in isolation, thanks to the appalling level of apathy towards them. It appears that little attempt has been made to acknowledge or restore them, and the journalists routinely pass them off as ‘natural formations’. The situation can only be salvaged if international attention is drawn to these structures, and teams of archaeologists (as well as independent enthusiasts) from around the globe visit these enigmatic monuments to research, restore, and promote them.

The importance of these ancient monuments of the Makran coast can hardly be overstated. They could be of great antiquity, and provide us with important clues to uncover humanity’s mysterious past.

References

1 This is the general impression gained from reading blogs written by visitors. The first reports and images of the Balochistan Sphinx begun appearing after 2004, when people started visiting the Hingol National Park on day trips from Karachi.

2 See for example: A. Nelson, ‘13 natural rock formations that look man-made’, 19 Jul. 2016.

S. Malik, ‘Natural Featured Sphinx of Pakistan‘, 18 Dec. 2014.

3 New World Encyclopedia, ‘Sphinx’.

4 Theoi Project: Greek Mythology, ‘Sphinx‘.

5 R Deekshithar, ‘Sphinx of India, the Living Tradition‘.

Also see the YouTube Video: ‘Sphinxes of India’.

6 Raja Deekshithat, ‘Sphinx in Indian Art‘.

7 Raja Deekshithar, ‘THE SPHINX IN ANCIENT BURMA AND MODERN MYANMAR‘.

8 UNESCO, ‘Remembering the 1945 Makran Tsunami’.

9 All Things Pakistan, ‘Mud Volcanoes of Balochistan‘.

10 National Geographic, ‘“Gooey” New Mud Volcano Erupts From Arabian Sea’.

11 Wink & Al-Hind, The Slave Kings and the Islamic Conquest, (BRILL, 1991) p. 132.